Today.

heh, intresting. It has been a wonderful day and tomorrow should prove to be even more wonderful. Tomorrow my family and I are heading up to my grandma and grandpas house, which I have not been to in a long long long time. So I am excited. Thanksgiving is always a fun and nice holiday where food is to be eaten and lots of laughs to be had. Ahhh family.... heh!! Well since I see that my two other friends have submitted their papers on the blog for everyone else to read, I will join in too!! heh (I will add very well job done to both of you) Our papers were to be written as a Compare and Contrast essay. I chose a more "worldly topic" since Mrs. Potthast had been pushing us to reach beyond ourselves and into the world. So I did. Heh. My Life as an American vs. Iraqi Children’s Lives As an American citizen I enjoy many freedoms that were given to me by our founding fathers. The great country of America has given me many freedoms, thereby enabling me to live a life full of riches and opportunities. As an American child however, my eyes had been blinded by my freedoms. I was unable to fully appreciate the great country I had been living in for my whole life. I was unable to open my eyes to the world, and see the pain and sufferings of my brothers and sisters. My riches blinded me, so that I could not see the murderous and cruel acts that were inflicted upon many children, often the same age as myself. In the spring of 2003, America went to war with Iraq. The American’s objective was to remove Sadaam Hussein from power. America’s fear and hatred of Hussein was driven by their thought that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. In the spring of 2003, America invaded Iraq with the objective to remove Hussein from power. A year and a few months later, the war in Iraq carries on. Hussein has been removed from power, and the country of Iraq left in ruins. I live the life of a middle class teenager in America. I enjoy many riches, and have ample opportunities to achieve anything that I desire. And so I naively assumed that many others across the world too shared the same freedoms that I have in my country, America. But as our American troops invaded Iraq in the spring of 2003, I soon discovered otherwise. The phrase the “Land of the free…” from the song “God Bless America,” began to take on a whole new meaning. As I watched the war in Iraq on television, I could not help to think how the poor and innocent Iraqi children could be surviving such a terror as war. Over the past year and a few months, I have become increasingly interested in the daily lives of the Iraqi children. I wondered how they could continue to live in such harsh conditions day after day. I find myself in utter disbelief of how these children are surviving. I find many aspects of my life and the life of an Iraqi child to be quite different. The difference in our lives is evident when looking at our schooling, our countries (America and Iraq), our rights, our responsibilities, and our goals and dreams. One of the main aspects of an American teenager’s life is school. And as a sixteen-year-old American, I can agree by saying that most of my time is devoted to my schoolwork. In Iraq education is the least of their concerns. Many children do not attend school, or they do attend school and are later forced to drop out of school. The children in Iraq often drop out of school around the ages of ten to thirteen. Most often the reason they no longer attend school is because they have to find a way to make money to bring food home to their starving families. In a poll taken in major cities in Iraq it was found that seventy to eighty percent of children in Iraq were no longer attending school, but were working since the war started. And in a poll taken in the city of Najaf, fifty percent of the children were no longer attending school. These staggering statistics of Iraqi children no longer in school is mind-boggling. The reason those statistics may seem absurd is that because in America, in my life, the very thought of dropping out of school would not even be an option. In America, schooling the children has become a top priority. The American government goes to great lengths for the children to attend school, often distributing financial aid packages to those who wish to pursue a higher education. In Iraq schooling is last on their list of priorities. Many Iraqi children cannot read or write, and if they can read or write it most often is only their name, and their father’s name. Literacy remains a problem in Iraq. Statistics reveal the truth of the illiteracy problem in Iraq. In the late 1990’s merely forty percent of Iraq’s population could read and write (fifty-five percent of men, and twenty-three percent of women). Another aspect of an Iraqi child’s life that I could never begin to understand is their day-to-day living conditions. In America, I find myself living comfortably in a nice house, in a respectable neighborhood, surrounded by good people whom I can trust. Never could I imagine living a life such as the Iraqi children live on a day-to-day basis. I cannot imagine waking up each morning to the sound of an air raid attack, or being scared for my life and the life of loved ones every single day. I cannot imagine knowing that because of one wrong word said, I could be murdered. When I imagine the life of an Iraqi child, I think that these children must live in fear, and never want to step forth from their houses. On the contrary, the terror filled lives of the Iraqi children makes them ever so more dependent upon themselves. Iraqi children work every day for food, and a small wage so that they can live and feed their families. While in America, I have not once had to be self-reliant. The life of an Iraqi child is one of pain and terror; one we, Americans, will hopefully never experience. As an American citizen, I acquired certain rights that were guaranteed to me through the United States Constitution. I have the right to choose whichever religion I wish to follow. I have the right to vote in public elections when I turn eighteen. I have the right to speak my mind. All of these rights and many more are guaranteed to American citizens through the government. Across the world each person has the right to life. The right to life should never be taken away from anyone, but sadly it is often, especially in Iraq. The Iraqi children have the right to life because they are human beings. However the Iraqi children do not receive many more rights. Unfortunately, the Iraqi government is more often stripping their right to life from them. Lack of rights, however, does not keep the Iraqi children from having overwhelming responsibilities. Unlike American children, they have to supply their starving families with food. The Iraqi children have the responsibility of keeping themselves, safe along with their families. They often stay up all night guarding their homes and families against raids that occur in their country. The responsibilities of the Iraqi children would prove to be unimaginable for most in America. The responsibilities of the children in America is not to provide food and security for their families, but to make sure the doors are locked at night, keep their rooms clean, and to occasionally take out the trash. The responsibilities of children of the same age, but from two different parts of the world are very dissimilar, and often horrifying. In spite of all of the differences between my life and the Iraqi children’s lives, there is a similarity. We are all children. We are all children striving for acceptance in the world. We are all children with goals and dreams. Even though we are separated through our two entirely different lives, one in the midst of chaos and one rejoicing in freedom, we all desire happiness and love. We are children living our lives: one in America, and one in Iraq. Hope you enjoy. I'm sorry I know its long. Tell me about it. I read it. It seemed that I had been reading for five-hundred years. Ahhh Well I'm out to get up early tomorrow to get ready to go to church at school. -Lindsay (Oh yeah, please comment on my paper your thoughts on it, because I'm just curious) HEH (Oh yeah again, today Tim's sister Jill had her surgery. So please everyone pray for her. I'm sure she will be fine. But a prayer never hurts. Right? heh oh of course right??? hehehe)